Summer. The hottest in many years. Wolfdog owners will know that this is not the favourite season of the year for our breed.
It’s quite a while since my last post. The more stable and reliable Pandora gets, the more difficult it is to find crazy stories to tell.
This should actually be a comfort for those with young (below 3 years old) wolfdogs. Are you struggling with your dogs obedience, have patience. There will come a day.

Observing

Training

For about 3 years we have been doing clicker training. The basics of this kind of training is using only positive learning.
Never on the training court have I needed to verbally correct, yank or otherwise stop Pandora during these training sessions. Therefore both Pandora and I are always looking forward to the training sessions, and Pandora is so vigilant and observant, that you could almost think she was a ‘normal’ dog. Meaning: easy trainable.

Actually the last couple of times the instructor has wanted to show something in ‘class’, she has asked Pandora and I to show how it should be done! Crazy! We are in the top of the class, who would ever have thought that? 3 years ago we were the absolute bottom of any class!

And then … sigh. Our clever and wonderful instructor Lene Frahm is taking a break for the rest of the year.
To train her own dogs! What’s that about?? 🙂
Anyway, there’s a small risk that she takes an even longer leave and what are we supposed to do then, Pandora and I? I have to train now and then with others.
I mean, we train almost every day on smaller bases. In the kitchen, on the walks, whenever. But now and then we need company and inspiration.
So I have decided to participate in a course which will make me an instructor in clicker training.
It is quite expensive, but guess what? I may bring the girl with me, and that makes it worth all the money.
I’m supposed to start in September, and after that, I’ll let you know.

Too much of a bone

Now and then Pandora gets a HUGE bone. It must be the thigh of a cow or something, dried or smoked. Anyway, she doesn’t really get happy for these. She gets worried. She starts crying and you can actually see the concern in her eyes.
‘What am I supposed to do with this, y’think? Where should I put it?’
She’ll enjoy it for one day or so, and then – if she gets the chance – she’ll dig it down.
That’s what happened one day we were sitting at the terrace. She had found the bone in the living room and now she came into the garden with it.
Sneaking. In stealth mode, she hid behind a bush and started digging. The logic is: If she can’t see us, we can’t see her.

After the digging she used her snout to cover the bone in the dirt. This took quite a while as it was a big bone.
The work done, she walked away and came over to us, sitting on the terrace, just to make sure we hadn’t seen anything.
Her snout was very dirty so I brushed it and discovered a huge abrasion on the rubbery part of her nose. All the black was gone and the blood was oozing through. Poor girl. So much hard work and then an ugly and annoying wound.
For two weeks she had a scar in bright pink. Luckily it finally turned black as it should, but now we are very aware when she gets a bone.

Friends and bones

Camping

Summer and camping. First we went to the western ocean, to Rømø (Roemoe) a small island with the best beach in the world. We have been there many times before.
Last year Pandora was afraid of the waves. This summer she didn’t care.Do notice that, as we are talking about a change in self confidence even after she has turned 4 year.
Anyway, we had the camper very near a water post. This meant that people were constantly stopping near our place to pick up water. Also a lot of dogs walked by.
This was a great exercise for the girl, as after 5 hours she didn’t bother about anything any more.
As you can see on the picture (of our very lopsided tent) Pandora is lying in front of the tent with no leash, just relaxing.
So wolfdog owners: there is still hope!

Rømø Camping, no leash

Camping 2.0

The week after we went camping with Rolf, Uno and Xtreme. We went to the Scandinavian Animal Zoo to see wolves amongst other things. The goal was Kaloe and Kaloe Cove, to see and photograph the castle ruin there.
This time we were just camping with a tent, not the camper.

3 dogs and 3 humans in the tent at night and it all went very well. The only downside was the heat. It was so hot that we hardly managed to do anything in the middle of the day, but I hope it’s not the last time we are taking a trip like that together.

A princess at the top of the castle at Kalø Vig (Kaleo Cove)

Friends – not for the touchy

We socialize all the time. With wolf dogs, other dogs and people.
Dariusz is Pandoras’ ‘baby’. She’s known him since he was a little one, now he is a BIG one.

One day when Dariusz was visiting, Pandora got ill and was vomiting.
What are friends for? Dariusz and Pandora shared the puke and ate it all up. Cheers!

Mouth water, the best there is

We went for a swim in our lake. On our way back we met some people with 3 dogs. One of them was a New Foundlander. The big dog sweat and was drooling, heavily dripping on the ground.
We nodded ‘hello’ and walked on, Pandora next to me in her leash. You could actually follow the trace back from the New Foundlander as its mouth water was visible pools at the side of the road. Pandora saw some mouth water hanging from the grass and took a big ‘slurp’ and ate (drank?) it.
No wonder dogs get ill!

Visit from Freybug

We met him last year as a small puppy, now he was a young boy about Pandoras’ size.
Neither my husband or i was there when Freybug arrived to our place. It was Auntie B who welcomed Freybug and his ‘dad’.
For some reason Pandora got extremely angry at Freybug. If she was insecure without her humans or something tricked her, we don’t know, but he was told to ‘stay away’ in a very harsh tone. Snarling and barking at him.
As I arrived a few minutes later, we decided to take the dogs for a walk. And within 5 minutes there was no longer any problems. Some misunderstanding had happened when they met, and then it was over.
It was nice to meet Freybug and his ‘dad’, who (the human) has a very positive attitude towards his dog.

Meeting Freybug

Camp

In June we were invited to a camp arranged by Auntie B and Johnni from Sealand.
We were in need of time as we (Cirkus Sort, our fire show) had been performing at the big CopenHell festival. For 3 days Pandora was taken care of by Auntie B. It’s the first time we have been away from Pandora for so long. Luckily we knew she were in the best of hands and the solution was so much better than bringing her to a kennel.
After three days we met our girl at the camp, where Auntie had taken her.
It was a very happy – but tired – girl that met us.
That day I had promised to tell about clicker and motivation training. I used Pandora to show what we could, but she was extremely lazy. She did a ‘fetch’ in the slowest possible way, but she did it.
I hope the people participating did understand the effect of clicker training after all. They seamed positive, at least.
The next day I told about doing tracks, and everybody did a track with much success.
The camp also had a visit from a well know wolf expert Freddy Worm. He told about his wifes training of a wolf, which she had brought to obedience training.
Freddy is such a nice person, and his stories about wolves, you could listen to forever.

Back to work

Now our holiday has ended and I am back to work with Pandora by my side.
It’s still hot outside so she is pretty relaxed. all in all it has been a wonderful dog summer. with lots of friends and socialization. The most important thing in a wolf dogs life.

Bye for now, I’ll write soon I hope. Enjoy the rest of your summer out there.

Wasted

PS. Photos

I’m actually very bad at remembering taking pictures. Especially because my husband takes photos on all our trips. If you want to see more pictures from our holidays and daily life, please visit Pandoras’ Facebook, where you can see all the gorgeous photos of her and her friends.

I our nearest city we have a shopping area. Stores lie side by side. Car equipment, clothes, Pet shops, furniture etc.

Today my husband went into the city to buy a (for a man very important) gismo in the car equipment store. He brought Pandora along, leaving her in the car as he went for the shopping spree.

Pandora is in heat. When in heat I feel instinctively that I cannot trust her the same way as usual.
She gets a little restless, lacks attention and seems to have her mind somewhere else. Probably in the neighbours garden.

Break out

This afternoon, she complains a little as my husband leaves the car, Pandora often whimpers a little when left.
But today, as soon as ‘daddy’ is out of sight, she starts working.

Throwing herself against the cage door several times to shake the handles loose. She has succeeded once before a couple of month ago, so why not again?
Soon she’s out of the cage and in the main of the car.
A small opening between the window and the doorframe has been left open. She starts to work on that, too, and finally the window opens enough to let her out.

The nearest shop? The Pet shop!
The well-known paradise with all the goodies, bones and toys. Pandora’s been there many times.
She enters and before anyone understands that this dog is WITHOUT a human, she steals the biggest goody in the shelf and runs back to the parking lot.
People from the shop follow her as she crosses one of the biggest and heavily trafficked roads in town, and vanishes into a small wood.

My husband leaves the car shop and is surprised to meet three people in the parking lot that ask him:
– Do you by any chance own a dog that looks like a wolf?

After chasing the crazy girl for a couple of minutes, my husband finally succeeds and captures the culprit.

I am now indifferent whether I should laugh at the theft in the pet shop or feel terrified because she crossed a potentially deadly road.
I think I’ll choose the first as nothing happened.

Pandora van Goverwelle, thief and culprit

New training and experiences

Though Pandora is in heat, she did surprise me last night as we went to training and she was so very alert and clever.
We started this seasons ‘click and motivation’, tricks and positions based on Dog dancing themes.
We tried dog dancing in the spring and found it challenging and educational. (The correct term is actually Heelwork To Music — HTM)
Pandora found it funny too, and since we haven’t been training for about two month, Pandora is now very motivated.
Everything went well last night, she obviously learned stuff and went all the way without getting unconcentrated after half an hour.
I was proud as a Olympic winner when we went home with a fabulous experience.

Wolfdog camp and rescue training

In June we had a private wolfdog camp. The first in Denmark in many years.
Me and Dariusz’ daddy Arne planned the camp with help from Auntie B.
Everything went very well. The dog owners thought it all worked out well.

The highlight of the weekend was a surprise event I had arranged Saturday afternoon.
All dog (we were about 13) went to a Rescue training site for rescue dogs.
I can still feel the longing for that day.

This was Pandora’s training paradise. Climbing into burned out cars and houses, finding people buried in piles of bricks, searching rooms filled with soot and old stuff. All these things she did so well. No fear of heights or moving platforms. It was like a miracle.
The combination of using: the snout, the intelligence and the body, was like she was made for exactly that.
Oh, how I wish we could train that way instead of obedience and meaningless stuff.

Guests

Lately we have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time together with Rolf and his two gorgeous dogs, Uno and Xtreme.

Pandora, Uno and Xtreme by the lake. Photo: Rolf

Uno being 8 years old and Xtreme 5, is great company for Pandora. She has now reached adulthood herself and doesn’t need to play all day long. A few minutes of trying to kiss the boys every now and then, and an occasionally running in the meadow is perfect. These three dogs together hands found peace and relaxation between them. They enjoy each other’s company but can also work separately.
They have been swimming, playing, traveling, been with us at museums, in parks, in the forest and so on. Treetop walking was a funny experience and again Pandora did it without hesitation.

Pandora, tree top walking. Photo: Rolf

It’s very exciting to watch the differences between the three dogs. The quiet and calm Xtreme, the energetic and ‘I’m right here’ Uno. Pandora is something in between.
But also what differs the sexes. What the boys do and what the girl does. How they interact and what sort of signals they use.
It has been a very entertaining and educational time.

Two weeks in June, we took care of Dariusz. For a while we had four dogs under our roof and it wasn’t always easy, especially as the two males, Dariusz and Xtreme didn’t actually love each other. But it went out fine, also.

Pandora and Dariusz sleeping on the sofa

Now we’re back to normal. My husband goes back to work in September and Pandora will go back to her routines.
May you all enjoy the late summer.

Well, not much new happens when you’ve got an almost four year old dog, but I’ll update you anyway.

A new cat

Today, this afternoon we’re going to have one more cat. We lost our beautiful Oden half a year ago and Shiva, our feline female has way too much energy for her own good. Now she’ll get at friend.

I’m very excited how Pandora will react. When she came to the house four years ago it took two YEARS to make her and the cats respect each other. Hopefully it won’t take this long this time.

Breeder? NO!

My warning on this blog, you can read under WARNING!, well it seems this guy has decided to spit out wolfdogs to complete defenceless people.

So far I have been in touch with three of his buyers. People who now have a wolfdog but think the bought a Labrador. I cannot say it clear enough: Stay away from this guy. It is so completely idiotic to sell Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs as ‘easy’ dogs. That is disrespect for the breed and a very unsympathetic way to make money, which seems to be all he wants. Thank god I also know of people who chose not to buy from him.

From now on, I’ll be in constant fear that these new owners don’t know what they are dealing with and therefore will create bad dogs with bad temper. Why the hell make puppies when all you can do is ruin the breed?

The Love

My girl has a boyfriend.

The small, cute wolfdog Dariusz is no longer a small cute puppy. He is a big, gorgeous 73 cm tall teenager.

I loooove when my girl and her boyfriend meet and they scour the areas together. Especially our grave pit is a paradise for these two.

Dariusz and Pandora scouring

Then they walk or run shoulder by shoulder, sniffing to the same plants, bath in the same small ponds and then kick each others arses.

They are the perfect couple and it is so obvious that this is the same breed, they talk the same language.

I must say though, when these two wolfs play, people around them think they are in heavy fight. They always greet each other standing on the hind legs, showing teeth and snarling. That is real lov!

Often they are misunderstood because of thier rough play and sounds, but they are really harmless.

Allergy

I told about Pandora’s allergy some time ago.

By now we have tried homeopathy, change of food and lately we ended the vaccination program from te vet.

Nothing has helped.

She is now on Medrol whit is adrenocortical hormone and not very good for the body. We try to only medicate her Sunday and Wednesday, and that is perfect, the doctor says, if just the body get a free day in between, she won’t be hurt. Oh my god, my little girl.

I’ll keep looking for solutions the rest of her life. Any ideas are welcome.

I could have danced all night …

Here it comes. We are going to attend a course in Dogdancing.

People look at me and say: A wolfdog dancing??

Well I haven’t told Pandora that dancing is girlie, and that music to training sessions is a no go, so she’ll think we are doing funny things just for her so who are YOU TO CARE (husband?) 🙂

As Pandora is very good at clicker training, Heelwork to music ( which it’s also called) is going to be fun. It’s just a weekend but we look forward to it. I’ll let you know all about it when we’re done.

Intelligence

Two things I’ve seen since last time:

Winter, dark, almost black nights. Pandora sees all. When we go for our evening walk, at a specific point we turn left via another road. Twice this week, a person was walking behind us. Far away, hundred meters or so.

When Pandora and I turn left, she observes this person whom has not yet turned our way. She can hardly walk as she has to look at him, observe him. The exact same second that man walk straight out, NOT turning our way, she stopped paying attention to him. That means she knows he is no longer a thread and she knows which direction he is heading. Smart!!

One day we were having a cosy time on the couch.

Pandora was licking a small plastic bowl with whipped cream (Well it was weekend), the bowl starts to slip over the edge of the sofa. Then Pandora takes it in her mouth, gently, like this was the most natural thing in the world, she moves it back to sit in front of her legs.

I cannot describe how controlled this look. The movement were so gentle and conscious, like a humans controlled moves.

I, Pandora, just wanted to say merry X-mas.
Me dad’s weird. He brought in a tree from the garden.
Since when was that smart? Is it now outdoor rules or indoor rules that count? Can I mark it with my delicate urin?

Mum’s in the kitchen making whipped cream for something the eat for christmas dinner.
In Denmark we, I mean humans, celebrate Christmas in the evening and run around the tree (I cant wait for that part) after dinner and then hand out gifts to eachother, and most importantly, me!
Mum says that some of you guys, must wait until tomorrow with the presents.
Thank the Fenris wolf it’s not me. Or I would just open them tonite when everyone’s asleep.

Target training in the kitchen

Well anyway, mum whipped cream and let me clean the bowl. After that she wanted me to do a thing she calls target training involving the broom from Hell.
God I hate that one.
Everyday this broom is staring at me from the wall near me dinner bowls and everyday I have to watch out it won’t attack me while eating. So far the broom hasn’t dared to come for me but its just a matter of time, and mum wants me to – to – to y’know TOUCH it. With me snout!

The Broom from hell

And there she stood with susages of the best kind asking, beggin’ and what did I do?
I touched it of course. Mum’s jumpin’ up and down telling me I was nice.
Hey mum, I know!
And then she said: “Tomorrow we target train on the vacuumer”.
THE VACUUMER?! Is she gone mad?
Well I did see her smile idioticly to the wall so perhaps it’s a joke. But its no fun, mum. Not at all.
But so far I conquered the broom. What will you conquer this christmas? And next year?

Tired and waiting for X-mas

Now I’ll take a nap and wait for me friend Lucky to celebrate X-mas with me.
So until next time: have a very happy christmas and a fantastic new year.

Bingo
The temperature in Denmark is dropping.
It’s autumn now, the leaves are turning into yellow-brownish and the days are short.

We can no longer let the door be open all day, it’s too cold.
Yesterday Pandora barked for the first time because she wanted to go out and pee. Great!

Our two cats are now coming into the house again although Pandora is there. She still chases Shiva the female cat occasionally, but the other cat Odin has figured out that if he lies still (superciliously on the dinner chair) Pandora simply do not know what to do with him so she leaves him alone.

Dominant brute
These days I am studying a lot of wolf background to get to know my dog better. I see the ‘light’ over and over again as the books describe the almost exact way I have trained my dogs so far. Not being a dominant brute seems to be the main keywords which suits me fine as it was never my style.
I have always trained my dogs by playing with them. I feared in the beginning that Pandora would need a tougher way of training, but it’s not the case. All the things the ‘old psychology’ dictated to show your domination, turns out to be rubbish. Such as:
Eat before your dog – well we don’t and we never did. It makes no sense anyway.
Make forbidden areas/furniture in the house – Pandora can be where she wishes to be except on the tables. Just like any other ‘animal’ in the family.
Walk through the door before your dog – Why? I couldn’t wrap my mind around that and remember it even if my life depended on it.

And I could go on. In my life with animals mutual respect has always been the issue. I don’t do things TO my dog I do things TOGETHER WITH my dog. To get her respect I have to be exciting and inspirational, just as other people have to be exciting and inspirational to get my attention. It’s quite logical.

The ‘difficulties’ with Pandora is her individuality. She’s not stupid but she can ignore things totally if she’s on to something else. Certain things are easy to teach her, other things seams to be so not interesting that she plays deaf. But with ‘tricks and treats’ I can lure her into the game.
I would never ever punish her physically and I discovered that starring into her eyes is enough punishment.
Another important thing is the way we socialized her from day one. She has met more than 30 dogs she could ‘talk’ to and she has at least 3 regular play pals. She has also been socialized with as many people as possible, and she meets other people every day and has at least 10 people who’s not afraid of her and can handle her – also playing a little roughly.

The human in the dog
Let me point this out: THERE IS NONE!
As mammals we have similar behaviour in many ways. This gives us a good base for understanding each other. But we have different bodies and therefore different body languages and visual appearance. Showing my teeth means smiling, when the dog shows its teeth it’s almost never a ‘smile’ etc.

Your dog never gets in the ‘assertive age’ or does things to provoke you; your dog is maturing and trying to stand on its own four feet just as any other teenager.
(See the sub site: Chronological Stages)

Your dog doesn’t need cakes, ice cream, chocolate, candy or any of those things it would never find in nature.
Confession: My old dog loved pizza, but Pandora has never tasted it and she never will.

A dog has fur!
Which is smart, it’ll make the dog resist cold wind, snow and rain. Your dog DOES NOT NEED clothes!
(Except for few breeds that needs a little help in the winter). Your dog DOES NOT see itself as cute in at pink pyjamas or a laced skirt.

Your dog doesn’t need to be carried around in a bag. It has four super designed legs to walk on. Let it!

Conclusion: There is just as much human in a dog as there is dog in a human. We are individual beings, behaving differently. Respect that!

We’re all in a box
A funny thing about humans is that we are just as predictable as any dog or breed.
Looking at which people chooses which dog breeds, tells us a lot of things.
It seams like those who chooses the ‘natural’-looking dogs (with long snouts, upright ears and long tales) almost never buy pink collars with rhinestones, fluffy footwear or velvet leaches to their dog.
On the other hand a lot of moloss owners buy a huge leather collar with spikes, call their dog Tyson and cut their bleached hair short. It’s really funny. Just go to dog exhibitions and see for yourself.

This was a bit different blog and I might have offended some people with my opinions, but I’ve seen so many pictures of dogs dressed up to amuse people and it disgusts me. Sorry.

(This blog is written a week ago and a lot have happened since. Next blog will be about BARFing)

Facts: As last timeWe love mornings
Waking up with a sleepy dog. Mostly she’s lying in the foot end of my bed. Lazy, small eyes, yawning. Everything stupid she did yesterday is forgiven. The night takes the badness away. She is gorgeous.
And now, as we leave her in the morning, there’s no panic. Actually this morning she would hardly get out of bed.

Ten days ago I laid a track for her. All made up be shrimps and salmon.
(Before we started at all, Pandora tried to wear her track harness half an hour or so, to get comfortable with it so it wouldn’t distract her on the track. )
Careful if there is a lot of wind the track will actually blow sideways (or wherever the wind comes from)
Leave it for at least 15-20 minutes the first time to make the grass leave some smells as it starts to putrescent. When the dog gets older and hard core to do tracking a track can be several hours old, even days.
Don’t EVER punish your dog, don’t shout, don’t do ANYTHING negative as the dog follows the track. You can ruin months of work, or even destroy the dogs ability to walk a track ever again!

Without the dog
The track was app. 10 meters (30 feet) long. I use wooden Chinese chopsticks to mark my track (natural smell, no bright colours) which is important so I can guide the dog in the EXACT direction in the beginning. At this first track, I took very small steps so that one footstep would touch the next. I did it at a lawn with well grown green grass. No obstacles were distracting (such as dead birds or more exciting obstacles – whatever would be more interesting than salmon?). For every 5-6 steps I put shrimps or salmon on the ground. As I know that she is very good at using her nose, I bend the track just a little. When I left the track, I made sure not to cross it again.

With the dog
After 15 minutes or so I returned to the track with Pandora wearing her track harness.
I showed her the beginning of the track and just few centimetres in I had left the first piece of goodie. Now she kind of understood that here was something exciting. All the time, I showed her with my hand near the grass saying: seek, seeeeek in a soft tone, but animating. At this first track I almost showed her every bite I had put on the grass. She was a little unconcentrated, but then again she had no idea of what was expected from her. She ran around, and crossed her own track a couple of times.
The last few metres she started to react as she had understood the deal, but then the track ended. At the end of the track, a little more salmon was waiting, and she had millions of praises. Good dog, so clever, beautiful …

Track no 2
Yesterday I laid a new track. 15 metres long. Salmon and raw beef. Again marking every 1-2 meter with a wooden chopstick.
First she was a little confused again, then it was like she remembered! Ouh, meet!
And then she did an almost perfect track. Finding every bite on the ground. Of course she ran around herself a few times, but she didn’t miss a bite, she walked the exact perfect direction (and for every finding I ‘clicked’ the clicker). A the end of the track a huge bite of salmon was put, but she didn’t want to end the track, so she follow my footsteps for several metres where I had walked as I left the track.
All the way home we walk in the side of the street and she couldn’t stop sniffing in the grass. It was like she suddenly had an urge to use her best ability. Sniffing. Using the nose.

The rest of the evening she was relaxed and calm. I had a walk with her later and she walk perfectly in the leach.
Right by my side, and sitting everytime we stopped to cross the street. It was obvious that the stimulating track gave her something important, and that it kind of took the stress out of her.
From now on I’ll lay tracks for her often.
The next 10 days we’ll be away from home together with her, so there’ll be lots of time to play, lay tracks and so. I’m really looking foreward to that.

Worries and food
I have made a discition to change Pandoras food as soon as we get home form our holyday. Right now she is getting dry food. Expensive, with the right amount of protein and stuff, but she drinks so much water and she pees indoor. Last night and the night before, she peed indoor 5 times – in the evening! That’s crazy. That’s too much. I’m afraid that she’s getting ill and loose too much weight.
I’ll look a little more into BARF (raw meet). It kind of appeals to me because she’s ‘half’ wolf. More about that next time.

Stars shining
I think I mentioned it last time. In the morning Pandora always has at least 10 stars in her ‘book’ and sometimes she looses them all half an hour before we go to bed. But not this week.

She seems to be more and more competent at: being alone, not peeing in the house, in our beds or where ever.
She’s been very good.

Growing fast – loosing teeth
To my big surprise I measured her Monday evening and discovered that she had grown 3 cm in one week! That’s crazy. But I’m certain that as I look at her last weekend she suddenly looked like an almost grown up dog. Her features were suddenly matured and her chest had broadened. And I was right. 3 cm is quite a lot in such a short time and I started to get a little anxious that she could be in pain. Sunday morning she seamed a little tired and worn out. That was also when I discovered that one of her teeth was very loose, so she didn’t want to eat her own ‘hard’ food. We gave her a little boiled chicken and raw salmon. In the evening she lost the tooth. We heard her playing with it at the wooden kitchen floor, so we actually found it.
After that, she could eat her normal food again and she brightened.
Yesterday she lost one more. Now she looks a little silly as one of her canine teeth is missing.

Rabies vaccination
Wednesday we went to the vet to get her second and last Rabies vaccination. In 120 days (not less!) she’ll have take a blood test to see if the anti bodies are in her blood.

Explanation: Rabies and worms
To go to Sweden a dog has to be rabies vaccinated. After the vaccine it has to be confirmed that the antibodies are in the blood. Sometimes the first vaccine can be a little too weak, and therefore our vet (most vets I guess) vaccinates the dogs twice, to be sure that it’ll make anti bodies. After the second vaccination there has to be 120 days before the anti body confirmation. NOT 119 days but could be 125 days, it’s ok. The vaccination will be written into Pandoras passport so that she can go with us to Sweden next spring.
Just before we go, she’ll have to have a worm treatment also as Denmark has a sort of worm that Sweden does not have.

Over exercising
I walk 6-10 km once every week. I’d started to bring Pandora with me as her fitness level is increasing, but suddenly I got afraid that I might have overrated her ability to walk 6 km. Now I’ve talked to friends, vets and pet letterboxes and they all seem to agree that 6 km is a little too long, but if we are careful and she doesn’t jump too much it’s ok.
As she was vaccinated, the vet also tested her joints to see if she felt any pain but she didn’t. There were no reactions what so ever.

By the way she loves to climb big stones and she spends a lot of time examining water. All kinds of water.

Clicker training
This week I bought a clicker to use for training.
I’ve heard a lot of good and bad about clicker training. I understand the different opinions. Clicker training is only for people who know exactly what they are doing or are guided by an experienced trainer.
The clicker is used to guide the dog in the exact moment she does the right thing, but first she’ll have to connect the clicking sound with something positive, so all Saturday and Sunday she ate sausages and listened to clicks. Yesterday I accidently pushed the clicker and Pandora came to me for sausage, so the training worked. I haven’t done much into it yet, but I’ll tell more as we use it more. I think it’s good training for her. Especially because she’s having trouble with ‘COME HERE’ commands. And with the clicker I can guide her the instant she’s doing the right thing.